Helen Mirren plays an elderly Jewish woman perfectly. It reminded me of my grandmother and other members of my family instantly.
I recalled the first time I saw the giant Ferris wheel as we crossed the border from Hungary to Vienna and hearing a foreign language for the first time in my life.
The movie has definitely shaken my child’s view of Austria as a real life fairy land to a country where anti-Semitism thrived during the Holocaust.
It was welcome to see the new face of Austria in the character played by Daniel Bruhl these children of Nazi descendants who want to make the amends for their father’s guilt contains a very touching part in The Woman in Gold.
The movie revolves around the paintings stolen by the Nazis on the research I found, that Adolf Hitler was an unsuccessful would be artist and that he himself denied the admission to the Vienna academy of fine arts. He still claimed himself to be an expert of fine arts, but only liked traditional art and thought Cubism, Futurism to be a product of a decadent society. When in the power he enforced this viewpoint on the nation, he sold and destroyed many of the paintings he disagreed with. Some of his party followers like Herman Goering and Von Ribbentrop were also keen to increase their own wealth by stealing the well to do masterpieces.
Unfortunately, as seen in the Woman of gold many countries make it very difficult for the original owners to claim back the property stolen from them.
There are also the infamous private collectors who believe that masterpieces should be for their eyes only and some of these painting are hidden away and may never be recovered.
I would have truly liked if they would have shown the other paintings that Maria Altman recovered besides the Woman in gold. The movie does not mention that Maria arrives as a refugee but created a comfortable business with her ability so the value of the paintings was not the issue.
The most memorable parts were when Randy Schoenberg playing Maria’s solicitor decides that it is not the money that the paintings are worth but the justice on getting back one’s property.
